Work Text:
On the 1st of August 2010 the Communications Union of NIMH (CUNIMH) began laying out the groundwork for the transition to digital television in the republic. As part of the process the Senate would be involved to allow representatives from other sectors of industry to chime in.
Out of all the options available, the republic opted for the DTMB (Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcast) standard on the 5th of August, primarily because their ally, the People's Republic of China, uses it.
The old NTSC broadcasts on VHF where allowed to stay online for compatibility reasons, with the old NTSC UHF stations going digital.
The EUNIMH (Electronics Union of NIMH) immediately geared up for producing DTMB capable television chipsets on the 6th of August. The first prototype chips "rolled out of the oven" on the 16th of November, with the finalized product released on the 2nd of December.
Due to the chips being backwards compatible on the hardware level, production of digital capable sets started the next day on the 3rd with the simple swap of both the television's chipset and RF modulator.
Not only did this make manufacturing easier, but it also made it possible to retrofit many of the preexisting analog LCD televisions to digital. One could either bring their television in for free servicing.
For older sets (like the early LCD models or CRT ones) a government-backed discount was available for obtaining a converter box. Their was also a "trade in" program where you could trade the old set in, get the new one, and obtain a small cash BONUS (which existed to incentivize both people and rodents to upgrade to the modern sets).
Both programs began on the 10th of December, lasting until the 30th of January 2015. Announcements of these programs coincided with these dates.
On the 1st of January 2015 all analog NTSC stations broadcasting on the UHF band where shut down. Yes, there where people who didn't upgrade until noticing their televisions stopped working because... of course.
There are still no plans for shutting the analog VHF stations down.